You mention that you just blew in from California, and the locals look at you kinda funny."You moved here on purpose?" the checkout girl at Target said.I did. And so far, it's been great.I think it's fair to beat up on the place where you've spent time - especially if you grew up in that place and continue to live there. But Sioux Falls has 162,000 residents - and is growing. The city offers a lot of amenities, I've found, and the people have been friendly and polite to a fault.You just have to find your comfort zone - then wander out of it, often.So far, I've found a fantastic sushi bar - owned and run by a Japanese family - that's fantastic. You can tell a lot about a place by who eats there, and at the next table was a group of Japanese men who were ordering off the menu.The local grocer sells several cuts of buffalo, as well as ground buffalo. I made a buffalo burger Sunday and it was fantastic. And the meat was just slightly more than regular ground beef.The girls and I have checked out the dog park - four times the size of Redding's - which is split between large and small dogs. Except for one muddy patch (Tril looked like she was wearing boots) and Scully eating a pinched loaf of Trin's poo before I could bag it, fun was had by all.My neighborhood continues to amaze me. The girls and I go on long walks in the morning and the evenings (Scully's breath is positively sweet without her Hoovering Trin's poo all the time), where I gawk at the homes and Trin strains to chase bunnies and red squirrels.And I've realized that I've just begun to uncover what Sioux Falls is all about. On Saturday nights downtown, they show movies on the side of a building. There's a zoo and a butterfly house. Concerts (free and not) and an upcoming jazz festival. The IMAX theater.And new friends.

Thom Gabrukiewicz is both a communicator and a writer of flash fiction. Most of what he writes is kind of dark, with occasional forays into the light.
He’s a winner of some awards and has covered two Winter Olympics. He’s also written a guidebook about hiking with dogs.
He’s fiercely loyal and has a malevolent side that seems to visit less and less. He’s both a hopeless romantic and a realist.
He's currently working on community wellness issues in Wyoming.